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When a boy goes missing and a policewoman starts drawing cave paintings, the Doctor suspects the Silurians are back. With the Brigadier distracted by questions about UNIT funding and problems at home, the Doctor swears his assistant Liz Shaw to secrecy and investigates alone.

But Liz has enquiries of her own, teaming up with a journalist to track down people who don’t exist. What is the mysterious Glasshouse, and why is it so secret?

As the Silurians wake from their ancient slumber, the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier are caught up in a conspiracy to exploit UNIT’s achievements – a conspiracy that reaches deep into the heart of the British Government.

An adventure featuring the Third Doctor, as played by Jon Pertwee, his companion Liz Shaw and UNIT

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Product description

Book Description

About the Author

Gary Russell was one of the script editing team for Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and is the author of many novels and reference books in the Doctor Who range. A former editor of Doctor Who Magazine, he also was the producer of Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish Productions for eight years. He lives in Cardiff.

This Doctor Who novel features the Silurians in another appearance in the time of the Third Doctor, as portrayed by Jon Pertwee on the small screen. The novel is set at the time about a year after his reincarnation from the Second Doctor, and he is working at UNIT headquarters with Liz Shaw.

There’s a lot going on in this book, and it takes concentrated reading to make sense of all the people (some of whom remain nameless throughout, which doesn’t make it any easier to keep track of them), places and happenings in what is a fairly busy book. There’s a lot of continuity from the tv series, and the UNIT soldiers are often recognisable names. There are also references to other stories that crop up throughout. That’s good, as it gives a sense of ‘reality’ to the story within the Third Doctor timeframe.

Above and beyond the Silurian storyline, there is a lot of other action to be read about as well – the political manouevrings of the Government ministers and the bureaucrats in charge of UNIT and C19, as well as the private life of the Brigadier, and of Liz Shaw, which is a nice touch, as we don’t often get to see that. And it does all add to the story; the Doctor is able to get a head start on the Brigadier, and Liz is sidetracked from keeping an eye on the Doctor’s doings because of their own concerns. The UNIT side of things is nicely done, and the characterisations of Benton and Mike Yates in particularly are really reminiscent of the tv series. Overall, a really good story which incorporates a lot of elements. I think this book needs to be read more than once to really get the nuances of it all, which is not a bad thing.

If you've ever read any of Gary Russell's Doctor Who novels, then you'll know that he likes his continuity. The Scales of Injustice is no different, and whilst readers who have an in-depth knowledge of the programme's history will get the most out of the book, the story is still good enough to be enjoyed by newer fans who maybe won't pick up on all the references.

The novel seems to have been written in order to address two issues - the first is to give Liz Shaw a proper leaving story (on screen she is last seen in "Inferno", and in the next story she is described as having returned to Cambridge). The second point is an attempt to reconcile what we saw onscreen in the Peter Davison story "Warriors of the Deep" to the original Silurian story from 1970.

Along the way various other continuity boxes are ticked, we meet C19 (mentioned in "Time Flight"), witness the breakdown of the Brigadier's marriage and we get more detail on Mike Yates' background and also see his promotion to Captain.

Although the Brigadier's sub-plot is never something that could have happened on televison, it works really well and gives the book some of its best moments. Liz Shaw is very well characterised too, and her growing estrangement from the Doctor has a parallel with the Brigadier's disintegrating home-life.

Whilst the Brigadier and Liz come across well, the Doctor's role in the story is a little disappointing. His subplot, attempting to negotiate peace with the Silurians, doesn't really engage - and he does spend a lot of the time as a fairly marginalised character. This was a fairly common problem with Doctor Who original fiction of the time - the various writers often were more concerned with other characters then they were with the Doctor.

So as long as you don't expect a novel with the Doctor centre-stage, this is a very good read as it gives all the members of the UNIT family (The Brig, Liz, Yates, Benton) considerable depth. The continuity references don't grate too much and whilst the story is quite straightforward it's still quite satisfying. Recommended.

Recently there have been released a “Monster Collection” of books, original novels about various ‘monsters’ that have appeared in Doctor Who over the years. This one features the Silurians in another appearance in the time of the Third Doctor, as portrayed by Jon Pertwee on the small screen. The novel is set at the time about a year after his reincarnation from the Second Doctor, and he is working at UNIT headquarters with Liz Shaw.

There’s a lot going on in this book, and it takes concentrated reading to make sense of all the people (some of whom remain nameless throughout, which doesn’t make it any easier to keep track of them), places and happenings in what is a fairly busy book. There’s a lot of continuity from the tv series, and the UNIT soldiers are often recognisable names. There are also references to other stories that crop up throughout. That’s good, as it gives a sense of ‘reality’ to the story within the Third Doctor timeframe.

Above and beyond the Silurian storyline, there is a lot of other action to be read about as well – the political manouevrings of the Government ministers and the bureaucrats in charge of UNIT and C19, as well as the private life of the Brigadier, and of Liz Shaw, which is a nice touch, as we don’t often get to see that. And it does all add to the story; the Doctor is able to get a head start on the Brigadier, and Liz is sidetracked from keeping an eye on the Doctor’s doings because of their own concerns. The UNIT side of things is nicely done, and the characterisations of Benton and Mike Yates in particularly are really reminiscent of the tv series. Overall, a really good story which incorporates a lot of elements. I think this book needs to be read more than once to really get the nuances of it all, which is not a bad thing.